Methods and apparatus for conveying articles and, in particular, articles supported on hooked members are used in various industries. For example, hooked members are frequently used to convey articles on an assembly line. The hooked members are each adapted to support an article and to hang from a conveying line. The articles are then moved along the conveying line, and either used or worked on in the assembly line.
Once each hooked member is placed on the conveying line, it is typically oriented in a fixed position. Since the hooked members and, thus, the articles are usually placed immediately next to each other on the conveying line in order to maximize the usage of space, it is typically not possible for an operator to view the sides of the articles facing each other. It is also typically not possible to rotate the hooked members or the articles relative to the conveying line while they are being conveyed, if necessary, for example, to view a normally hidden surface on an article. Typically, the manner in which the hooked members are seated on the conveying line prevents the hooked members and/or the articles from being rotated from one position into another relative to the conveying line while being conveyed.
In laundry and dry cleaning facilities, the articles, which are typically garments, are placed on hooked members, typically hangers, and the hangers are loaded onto a conveyor. In larger laundry and dry cleaning facilities, the garments are loaded onto a sorting conveyor in an unsorted order or sequence. There are several drop-off stations located at various points along the sorting conveyor. The garments are sorted by moving the sorting conveyor and unloading each garment into a respective drop-off station in a predetermined order. The sorted garments located in one or more drop-off stations are then loaded into trucks for delivery to the customers.
In order to sort the garments on the sorting conveyor, it is necessary to first identify each garment in the unsorted sequence of garments. With known conveying and sorting apparatus, however, it has been difficult to efficiently collect identifying information for each garment upon loading the garment onto a sorting conveyor, so that the garments can, in turn, be efficiently sorted into the drop-off stations.
Each garment typically includes a label displaying the necessary identifying information. If the garment has a collar, such as a shirt or jacket, then the label is typically located on an interior surface of the collar.
If, on the other hand, the garment has a waistline, such as a pair of trousers, then the label is typically located on an exterior surface of the waistline. The labels on the garments are then usually read by an operator and the identifying information is collected before each garment is placed on a conveyor. This is a tedious and time consuming procedure.
With known conveyors, the hangers are usually oriented substantially perpendicular to the axis of the conveyor. The labels on the garments therefore each typically face the garment located either immediately in front or behind the respective garment. It has not yet been possible to rotate either the hangers or the garments from one position into another relative to the conveyor while the garments are being conveyed, in order to view the labels.
The hangers are also typically conveyed at a relatively fast speed in order to quickly process the garments, particularly when there are large quantities of garments to be sorted. Since it has typically not been desirable to slow down the speed of the entire conveyor, it has also been difficult to accurately read the labels on the garments due to the relatively fast speed of conveyance of the hooked members.